Telesurgery versus telemedicine in surgery--an overview

Telemedicine, the use of telecommunications technologies to deliver health services over a distance, is emerging as an innovative tool for the field of surgery. Recent feasibility and demonstration projects have documented the potential of telesurgery, the performance of a surgical intervention by a surgeon not physically located with the patient. However, the use of telemedicine for surgical services expands beyond telepresence surgery to include telementoring, teleproctoring, teleconferencing, and teleconsulting. This chapter overviews the current status of telemedicine applications across the full range of surgical care, which include training, preoperative, operative, and postoperative follow up. Although telesurgery garners the most attention, the paper concludes with the argument that the actual mainstay for telesurgery is the telemedicine components offered in the continuum of surgical services.